Monday, February 8, 2010

Olympic Journey - Feb 8, 2010

4 DAYS TO GO !!!

The city is alive with people starting to enjoy the Olympic spirit - the above photos taken on the Blackberry show some of the ways the City is trying to ensure that the visitors are welcomed and can find there way around the downtown core.

Over at the official Olympic store located in the downtown Bay building - it was a mad boxing day scene almost the entire weekend - they had 22 payment stations going full bore the entire time and there were long line-ups at all of them.

They have now sold over 2 million of the red mittens and the last large shipment has arrived and they are selling fast - suspect they will bring in stock from other stores across the country if the demand keeps up.

When the Bay won the contract away from the "Roots" chain there was a lot of skeptics who didn't think the Bay could deliver on its promises and financial commitment - at last report VANOC expects to exceed both there revenue and profit targets from the merchandising.

The Bay has also opened a new international mall up on the five floor where a number of other countries are selling their official merchandise - while not busy there was a steady stream of customers looking over the goods - there is a very large display of Russian goods for sale.

I looked for some Slovakian goods - all they had were a hat and a hockey jersey - both well priced for me not to buy - gonna check some of the other discount stores to see if they have anything - think it would be nice an proper to wear the colors of the country that I will be assisting.

Last night while watching the Super Bowl I got the next email that I was expecting for my volunteer assignment - it was details of when, where and how to get my accreditation and uniform and it confirmed what I was told at training - just needed to go to the web site and pick a time - unfortunately I was hoping for a morning time but could only get an afternoon one - there is however some short term free parking across the street from the venue for us to use if necessary but I will probably bus out since the ride back will be free - once we have our documents all transit in the region is free to use.

Over dinner after the Game a good friends partner who is also an Olympic volunteer and I compared some training thoughts etc. Her job will be more of a meet, greet and seat volunteer at the Pacific Coliseum - home of figure skating and short track speed skating.

Next up for me on the journey - the dress rehearsal for the opening ceremonies on Wednesday - then watching the Olympic torch relay as it goes through the West End and down Davie street early Friday morning and then watching the opening ceremonies - I won't be near BC Place stadium - between 50, 000 and 100,000 are expected in the area for the ceremony as well as about 1500 militant demonstrators who are counter marching along the route and while I hope that all will be peaceful I wouldn't bet on it considering some of the comments the organizers have been saying publicly on TV and posting on their web sites.

If the weather is dry I might head down to the Live event site at David Lam Park in Yaletown and watch the proceedings from there - it is also the site of the nightly fireworks and water spectacular - I can see some of the site from the condo and they have been practising the last few nights. It looks like it will be quite the show.